1. Field of Invention:
The essence of this inovation is the provision of the hardware to permit instant conversion of a freight traffic floor surface to the effortless fluidity of a roller (Transfer) ball surface along with the instant revision of the surface back to the norm.
2. Description of Prior Art
To date, the so-called Transfer Ball is best detailed in the patent Rolling Member to Blaurock Oct. 18, 1988, and is a basic representation of the transfer ball portion of this invention. This is now considered an off-the-shelf product and, of course, no patent claim is made thereto. Those comparable surfaces involving rotatable spheres upon which cargo or freight is moved over appear to be permanently fixed in the raised position and appear to be of an intermediate nature in that they are utilized to move things upon but, by their state of being permanently upraised, are too unstable for travel by the prime carrier unit.
Those devices capable of allowing for the raising and lowering of the referenced transfer balls appear to also allow for what could be extremely expensive equipment and labor downtime by failure of its essential, prime component. I refer to patents, Conveyor System With Rollers and Plungers, U.S. Pat. No. 4,627,526, Masciarelli, Dec. 9, 1986, Conveyors, U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,345, Webb, July 19, 1977, and Conveyor System With Rollers and Plungers, U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,793, Masciarelli, Nov. 17, 1987. That most problematical component of these inventions is the bladder affair that is inflated and deflated by air to raise and lower the transfer balls. One might imagine the expensive downtime of a puncture caused by an object falling between the bladder and the surface it must have to push against to raise the balls. Further, consider the time to dismantle and submerge the bladder underwater in an effort to locate the air leak. The nature of an air bladder support cannot provide what would be called "positive" support as does the present invention. What is to prevent a weight-caused imbalance from unequal weight distribution and its detrimental effect in the form of disimilar transfer ball projection. To maintain the required continual lubrication of the moving parts of these prior art devices presents a very definite challenge to a user. A user must consider the effects of time and the elements causing hardening and cracking of that material composing the bladder. In short, the preceding state-of-the-art references cannot compare to the subject invention in problem avoidance and none of the remaining balance existing can be described as a convertible (or prime carrier) floor in the truest sense of the word.